I Will Do Things Differently If I Have The Opportunity – IBB

Former military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (Rtd.) clocks 75 years today. In his usual birthday interaction with journalists, the elder statesman speaks about his experience as a retired Army General, former president and his new age.

You have been a military officer and a President, which one was more challenging?

Being a military officer is more challenging than being a military President. Being a military officer, you are leading men into danger, your life and their lives very much depend on you as the Commander. I see it as more challenging than being the President, As a military President, you still have to seek people’s advice, you interact, you discuss based on the prevailing situation you find yourself but being a military officer, you are the only one with the troops you are commanding. Their hopes are on you and if you read a situation wrongly, you will put everyone in danger.

You experienced the civil war, what can you describe as your toughest experience?

I think it was the movement from Enugu to Umuahia. It was very tough and challenging, you need to be physically fit to be able to undertake such thing because we were moving on our foot and we had to go through the jungle, mountains, and hills and so on. It was the toughest experience I’ve ever had.

It has been a while since your wife died, how do you cope with living without her?

It has not been easy but I thank God that I have children who show remarkable understanding and have been doing their best by trying to do what their mother did. I also have a lot of grandchildren and they take most of my time.

 From the depth of your heart, how do you feel being 75?

From my heart of heart, I feel old because what I was able to do 25 years ago, I am not able to do it physically now but I thank God that He has spared my life to reach this age.

What advice do you have for the younger generation?

I only have one advice for them, play hard and pray hard.

What advice do you have for younger people who want to the join the army considering the prevailing security situation?

The basic elements still remain the same up till now despite what we are going through. We joined the army for the purpose of being in the force to protect this country so that haven’t changed. They also have to submit themselves to a constituted authority and they will have to undertake tasks or jobs assigned to them by the government and they should be expected to serve in any situation that they may be called upon to serve. The army is a noble profession and it is a profession that requires a lot of courage.

You said recently that you would be giving advice to leaders and the younger generation. How does it feel being an elder statesman?

You feel good because you are not at the receiving end. Based on your experience of the past, you can now be able to offer advice because you might have come across a similar situation during the course of  your  time.

Do you feel comfortable with people’s perception about you, or have you been misconstrued in the past?

I am not the evil that quite a lot of people consider me that I am. I have had a very excellent background and by training, we have to love one another. However, I can understand the feeling, by virtue of the job I was doing, I was bound to be misconstrued and people will take it like that but I consider it as an opinion as long as I am not what you think I was, I feel satisfied.

I read somewhere sometime ago that they said I stole 12.8 billion  dollars and I said if I stole such a money, I had no business staying in the country but those are the type of things that one have to live with. I hope the younger generation will carry out a research about leadership, people, individual and what role they played in the development of the nation and they come up with a different conclusion from what is on ground now.

How do you feel about your rumored death?

It is not new, they have done it to Zik, Shehu Shagari and other statesmen, so it’s not new. Whether I like it or not, I will still die, they are only stating the obvious. The only thing we do not know about death is that we don’t know the cause, time or the place.

What would you do differently if you had the chance, either in your public or private life?

During my public life, there were a number of decisions we took as a military officer or as a political officer (when I was a dictator) that if I had the chance again, I would have done it differently. For example, in 1989, we proposed that the National Assembly should be optional, that is part-time.

I still believe that if I had the opportunity, I would make the National Assembly part-time. I believe in that very strongly, it was an effort to cut down the cost of governance.

You must have been very handsome and smashing as a young man. How were you able to convince your late wife to marry you?

While we were courting, there was one aspect that she did not believe about me, first she did not believe that I was serious because of the reputation I had as a playboy, but I assured her that it won’t be a problem that I would be a changed person completely and I am glad I was.

I had no problem solidifying the relationship because I knew her and I knew every one in her family.

How did you propose to her?

I was straight to the point. I told her bluntly that I wanted to marry her.

Was joining the army your only option in the choice of your career?

When I was young, my principal wanted me to go into administration; I personally wanted to go for engineering. Then politics came, the then minister for Army at that time, one Tanko Galadima from Bida came on a recruitment drive to my school, he wanted people from this part of the country to enlist into the Nigerian Army because there were not many of them at that time.

Then he asked how many of us were interested and a lot of hands went up thinking it was a joke, our names were taken down and within a week, enlistment forms into the army were brought. We sat for the examination, we deliberately decided to pass the examination because we didn’t want people to say we failed. So we passed the examination, interview, medical test and aptitude test. We decided to go into the army because we had a strong backer in the minister in charge of the army.

NEMA has warned communities along the River Niger of imminent flood, what is your advice to the people living along this part of which Niger state is among?

There has always been the problem of flood in Niger State during the raining season. Lots of people lose their homes and properties during this period. That was why I made a very good drainage system around the state, I made Minna one of the best drainaged city you can find in the nation.

My advice is that government should look at those areas prone to flood and start putting measures in place to avoid loss of lives and properties. The warning from NEMA is coming at a very good time and I hope the government and people take caution


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